Gaia Project
I got this for Father’s Day and finally got to play with actual human beings tonight. I’m also pretty drunk on high octane scotch, like 130 proof?
It’s about 70% Terra Mystica and the 30% that isn’t is quite different. The metaphor is clearer, and the game feels quite a lot less like an exercise in Euro style abstraction and optimisation.
Damn this is hard when I’ve got this much scotch in me. Uhh.
We played the recommended three player learning game. I played boring old Terra which isn’t boring at all, just didn’t know what to do with their special ability. There was also a rock person and a bug person. The races felt quite different from each other.
I lost by kind of a lot but did I mention I’ve had some drinks?
Three players felt good, four is probably fine but I’ll bet it gets slow. TM goes to five but this one tops out at 4.
Anyway, good game. Love the look and feel, more Ameritrash than the wood cubes and shaped meeples in TM. Mostly I’m sad that I invested in the gorgeous TM organizer because Gaia Project might have fired it.
What is it? I remember Terra Mystica had a lot of cube-pushing feelings.
This is TM v2. Same designers, same framework.
What I like about Gaia Project is that the metaphors are so much clearer and more obvious. Like remember the various upgrades you could buy in TM? Like “ships” and cheaper terrain-changing? Those and other effects are folded into six technology tracks in GP instead. Super obvious, very clear, no extra layer of abstraction. Or rather, it’s an abstraction I found way easier to plug into. And then your advancement along those technologies takes the place of the “cult track” stuff in TM which is really just more weird abstraction.
I kind of want to go back and play TM and see if the game clicks for me more now that I have a different way of modeling what’s happening in my head.
I like Gaia project more than Terra Mystica. The goals are random for end game and during turn wise is a great mechanic as well
I’m dying laughing because all I could think was how can he concentrate to play a new game if he’s drinking? and then about a third down you’re like wow this is really hard considering I’m drinking scotch! 😂😂